Attack on charter97.org lasts for second day

The DDoS attack started yesterday at 11.56 a.m. (Minsk time). The technical service managed to neutralize the strong distributed denial of service attack this noon, but two hours later the attack was continued.

The new wave of the DDoS attack continues with renewed vigour and gains momentum. The website will probably be unavailable again.

Yesterday, the system failed to cope with the incoming traffic and the hosting provider had to shut down the server.

The Charter’97 press center suspects the secret services to be involved in attacking the website. It’s not the first attempt of the Belarusian authorities to control information on the internet. Having closed most of the independent newspapers, blocked the access to TV and radio for the opposition, systematically suppressing of the freedom of speech, the regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka has been trying to suffocate the freedom of speech on the internet.

The authorities may have been displeased at many materials and themes published on the website this time. This may be video of Projectorparishilton, a TV programme of the Russian First Channel, which contained satire on the Belarusian dictator banned on the Belarusian television by propaganda. This may be active coverage of the trade war with Russia, hushed up by the state-run media but sparking a big dispute in the country. This may be a hunger strike of US national Emanuel Zeltser in prison and an issue of political prisoners in the country. The only thing is evident – the Belarusian authorities are afraid of any objective information about the events in the country and ready to use any measures to suppress the freedom of speech.

We express thanks to our colleagues on Radio Svaboda, Lenta.ru Russian internet resource, BelaPAN information agency, Euroradio and other media outlets for their solidarity and support.

Radio Svaboda website declared an action of solidarity and places our website’s materials. We call on our colleagues to support us as far as possible and place our articles on their resources.